Unconfirmed

Latest Episodes:

The 'Brilliant Asshole' Who Almost Blew Up Coinbase - Ep.126 May 22, 2020

Show notes

Jeff Roberts, staff writer at Fortune and author of the recent Audible book, “Kings of Crypto: Coinbase and the Coming Disruption of Finance,” discusses Coinbase's past, present and future. In this episode, we cover:

when Coinbase duped Apple with its app and eventually got kicked out of the App Store
when Coinbase's hot wallet got hacked
how CEO Brian Armstrong handled challenges like the Bitcoin block size debate and an IRS summons on all its customers' activities for years
how it handled the competition from Binance
why that led to "screaming in the board room"
the "complete mercenary" and "brilliant asshole" who tore the leadership ranks apart and led to a number of departures by top execs
why Brian and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon met privately
where Coinbase goes from here

Take the Unchained survey!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/unchained2020

Apply for the editorial assistant job at Unchained!

https://unchainedpodcast.com/seeking-remote-editorial-assistant/

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Nexo: https://nexo.io

Episode links:

Jeff Roberts: https://twitter.com/jeffjohnroberts

Kings of Crypto on Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-of-Crypto/dp/B085PY7S7H

Harvard Business Review edition: https://www.amazon.com/Kings-Crypto-Startups-Cryptocurrency-Silicon-ebook/dp/B085TRJY8X

Jeff’s interview with Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam at Consensus: Distributed: https://www.coindesk.com/video/the-kings-of-crypto-an-inside-look-at-the-history-of-coinbase

JPMorgan banks Coinbase: https://www.wsj.com/articles/jpmorgan-extends-banking-services-to-bitcoin-exchanges-11589281201

Brian Brooks becoming acting comptroller of the Office of the Currency: https://www.coindesk.com/a-former-coinbase-lawyer-is-about-to-become-acting-head-of-us-bank-regulator

Coinbase going remote-first: https://blog.coinbase.com/post-covid-19-coinbase-will-be-a-remote-first-company-cdac6e621df7

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/90-million-down-the-toilet/

Bitcoin at the 3rd Halving: What We See From On-Chain Data - Ep.125 May 15, 2020

Show notes

Yan Liberman, cofounder at Delphi Digital, breaks down all kinds of data from the Bitcoin blockchain to give a snapshot of where Bitcoin is at this point in its development and glean where it might go in its future. We discuss:

Bitcoin's wealth distribution and how that has changed over time
what whales have been up to recently and how that compares with their behavior in previous bull and bear markets
what data on multi-sig transactions tells us
what companies serving the institutional and retail markets are seeing in terms of customer demand
activity to and from exchanges, and what those trends mean
what unspent transaction outputs tell us about investors' mindset now
and the market value to realized value (MVRV) — what it is and what the current MVRV says about where Bitcoin is in terms of this investment cycle

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Yan Liberman: https://twitter.com/YanLiberman

Delphi Digital: https://www.delphidigital.io/

Delphi's State of Bitcoin 2020: https://www.delphidigital.io/halving

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/where-is-the-eth-going/

A Bitcoin Price of $115,000 Next Year? - Ep.124 May 08, 2020

Show notes

Dan Morehead, CEO of Pantera Capital, talks about the coronavirus and its impact on the economy and on Bitcoin. We discuss:

why he thinks the US won't have a V-shaped recession
how the government's monetary and fiscal policy will affect the recovery
how this looks similar to what he saw when he traded in Japan in the early 1990s
why tokens are outperforming venture
whether or not Bitcoin is uncorrelated or if that narrative is changing
where he thinks Bitcoin will go — and whether the rest of the crypto market will go with it
and what he thinks will happen after the halving
and why his projection is that Bitcoin could reach $115,000 in 2021

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Dan Morehead: https://twitter.com/dan_pantera

Pantera Capital: https://www.panteracapital.com

Pantera's April 2020 newsletter: https://medium.com/@PanteraCapital/macro-impact-on-bitcoin-pantera-blockchain-letter-april-2020-1fdc792d4f33

Pantera's March 2020 newsletter: https://medium.com/@PanteraCapital/crypto-in-this-crisis-pantera-blockchain-letter-march-2020-4c73af3aaaf7

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/paul-hodl-jones/

Why 2020 Will Be the Year Bitcoin Becomes a Mature Asset - Ep.123 May 01, 2020

Show notes

Mike McGlone, senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence, explains why he believes Bitcoin is revolutionary, has begun to cement its status as a digital version of gold and is becoming less of a risky investment and more of a way to lower one's risk in a portfolio — but why he doesn't view it as a payment system. He describes how he expects the halving to affect the price of Bitcoin, why the on-chain metrics vs. price seem to him strong signs of adoption and why he views Ethereum as "just another one of the 5,000 cryptos out there." Plus, he talks about why increased usage of stablecoins and central bank digital currencies will only be bullish for Bitcoin.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Mike McGlone: https://twitter.com/mikemcglone11

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-mcglone-a8442513/

Bloomberg's Crypto Newsletter: https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/crypto-newsletter/

April 2020 outlook: https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/Bloomberg-Crypto-Outlook-April-2020.pdf

January 2020 Crypto Outlook: https://data.bloomberglp.com/professional/sites/10/Bloomberg-Crypto-Outlook-January-2020-edition.pdf

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-case-for-bitcoin-on-ethereum/

Haseeb Qureshi on the Unbelievable Story of the $25 Million Lendf.me Hack - Ep.122 Apr 24, 2020

Show notes

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner of Dragonfly Capital, describes how the Lendf.me attack happened, why imBTC was involved in that hack and a $300,000 hack involving Uniswap the day before, and how the ERC-777 token standard was involved. He also recounts what happened after the attack, including messages sent to and from the hacker, how the Chinese and Western DeFi communities had different responses, and how the hacker ended up returning the funds. Plus, he goes into the details of what he knows about why the attacker did so.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Haseeb Qureshi: https://twitter.com/hosseeb

Dragonfly Capital: https://www.dcp.capital

The Block on the exploit: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/62346/multicoin-capital-backed-defi-protocol-dforce-loses-25m-total-locked-value-in-an-exploit

News about dForce bringing imBTC to Lendf.me: https://medium.com/imtoken/dforce-brings-imbtc-to-defi-lending-c739b5cc0643

More about imBTC: https://token.im/blog/en-us/articles/360037559114

Compound CEO Robert Leshner’s comment referring to how dForce stole Compound’s code: https://twitter.com/rleshner/status/1251717261888385025?s=20

More on imBTC attack on Uniswap: https://defirate.com/imbtc-uniswap-hack/

Medium post on whether or not the ERC-777 standard is to blame: https://medium.com/@provablethings/is-a-new-token-standard-really-to-blame-for-the-imbtc-uniswap-and-dforce-attacks-31c62e2bc799

The Block on the new token standard: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/62568/ethereum-token-standard-open-finance-exploits

Larry Cermak tweet about centralized tokens: https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1251953291891802112

Su Zhu on the hacker perhaps being exposed via VPN: https://twitter.com/zhusu/status/1252479842261450753?s=20

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/unbelievable/

12 Big Class-Action Lawsuits in Crypto: What, Who, How and Why - Ep.121 Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

Stephen Palley, partner at Anderson Kill and chair of the firm’s technology, media and distributed systems practice group, explains what the 11 recent class-action lawsuits against ICO issuers from 2017 and exchanges were about, who brought them, who the defendants are, and what hurdles they face, especially regarding jurisdiction. He also discusses why some prominent individuals in crypto, such as Changepeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance, Brendan Blumer, CEO of Block.One, Arthur Hayes, CEO and cofounder of BitMEX, among others, were named, and how the "control person" theory of liability will play a role in the claims. We also dive into the lawsuit for $28 million against Maker Foundation over Black Thursday losses, and the attempt by MKR governance token holders to force Maker participants to agree to indemnify the Maker Foundation.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Stephen Palley: https://twitter.com/stephendpalley

The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/

The Block article on lawsuits: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/60930/top-crypto-exchanges-token-issuers-named-in-friday-barrage-of-u-s-class-action-lawsuits

Offshore Alert on lawsuits: https://www.offshorealert.com/class-action-complaints-against-cryptocurrency-firms-alleging-unregistered-sale-of-securities.aspx

CoinDesk article summarizing the lawsuits: https://www.coindesk.com/top-crypto-firms-including-binance-civic-tron-targeted-in-flood-of-lawsuits

The Block on lawsuit against the Maker Foundation: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/61797/maker-foundation-class-action-lawsuit-black-thursday

CoinDesk article on class-action lawsuit against the Maker Foundation: https://www.coindesk.com/makerdao-users-sue-stablecoin-issuer-following-black-thursday-losses

Indemnity vote: https://vote.makerdao.com/polling-proposal/qmwfvvguaf8rz8xwgv2cqnzzt9t5h6epzh17qmk2ue99y4

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/covidbnsdcep/

China's Crypto Industry and DCEP in the Time of Coronavirus - Ep.120 Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Matthew Graham, the CEO of Sino Global Capital, describes how the economy has changed in China due to the coronavirus, how it is affected as business opens back up and how the government is managing it. He explains why the DCEP project is continuing apace and described how he thinks the coronavirus will impact the crypto industry, how it will affect entrepreneurship, and how he thinks startups should approach this time. We also cover the Bitcoin halving and why he thinks that miners in China will make it through the halving fine despite the price volatility in recent weeks.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Matthew Graham: https://twitter.com/mattysino

Sino Global Capital: https://www.sinoglobalcapital.com/

China's economy as it comes out of the first coronavirus outbreak: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/business/economy/coronavirus-china-economy-stimulus.html

China's crypto startup scene post-coronavirus: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/08/start-up-crash-reveals-china-post-coronavirus-economy-luckin-coffee-fraud/

China going for digital yuan: https://www.coindesk.com/china-will-undoubtedly-pursue-digital-yuan-central-bank-says

The benefits China could reap from DCEP: https://fortune.com/2020/04/07/china-us-digital-currency-coronavirus/

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/flashbacks-to-2016-2017/

Coronavirus Relief and Its Impact on the Crypto Markets - Ep.119 Apr 03, 2020

Show notes

Kevin Kelly, macro strategist at Delphi Digital, discusses how the coronavirus's impact on the economy will affect Bitcoin and the crypto markets, including the ripple effects of the US fiscal stimulus package and historically high jobless claims. He explains how Bitcoin compares to traditional financial assets, what the recent Bitcoin price action says about the theory that Bitcoin serves as a macro hedge, and why it looks like newer buyers, rather than long-term holders, have been selling Bitcoin in recent weeks. We also look at the timing of the coronavirus on the upcoming Bitcoin halving, plus dive into a proposal by his colleague that Maker should hold some MKR in reserve rather than relying on token burns for system income.

Thank you to our sponsor!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Episode links:

Kevin Kelly: https://twitter.com/Kevin_Kelly_II

Delphi Digital: https://www.delphidigital.io

Delphi's March 2020 Bitcoin Outlook: https://twitter.com/Delphi_Digital/status/1243955823904280578?s=20

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-coronaviruss-impact-on-startups-mining-stablecoins/

What Happened on BitMEX During Black Thursday - Ep.118 Mar 27, 2020

Show notes

Antoine Le Calvez, blockchain data engineer at Coin Metrics, explains what happened during the Bitcoin liquidation spiral on March 12, why it was so significant for the Bitcoin markets, and how a DDOS attack affected trading on BitMEX and the Bitcoin price during a period of high liquidations. We also discuss how Bitcoin liquidity has changed since Black Thursday, why that might be, and also what the coronavirus is showing us about Bitcoin's correlation to traditional financial assets.

Thank you to our sponsors!

eToro: https://www.etoro.com

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kelman Law: https://kelman.law

Episode links:

Antoine Le Calvez: https://twitter.com/khannib

Coin Metrics: https://coinmetrics.substack.com

Coin Metrics’ BitMEX post: https://coinmetrics.substack.com/p/coin-metrics-state-of-the-network-bf8

BitMEX on the DDOS attack: https://blog.bitmex.com/how-we-are-responding-to-last-weeks-ddos-attacks/

BitMEX Insurance Fund: https://blog.bitmex.com/bitmex-insurance-fund-your-questions-answered/

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/the-jaw-dropping-events-of-black-thursday/

Blockchain Tech's Storytelling Problem and How to Solve It - Ep.117 Mar 20, 2020

Show notes

Emily Parker, cofounder of Longhash, reads from an essay she wrote about a problem that is probably relatable to everyone in the crypto industry: how you explain blockchain technology to other people. She goes into the three main reasons why the industry has this problem, including the fact that the decentralized nature of the space means there's no designated marketer, that many in crypto don't know what story to tell, and how many actors in the space prefer to engage in petty infighting vs. communicating to outsiders. Plus, she has a few suggestions on what the industry could do to tell its story better and get more people on board.

Thank you to our sponsors!

eToro: https://www.etoro.com

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com

Kelman Law: https://kelman.law

Links from news recap:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/who-was-selling-on-black-thursday/